Pre Amp/Receiver for Stereo

Why do you need a whole receiver including power amps, if you are using powered speakers?

You've already said that you aren't sure about the receiver's FM tuner, as well.

?

I assume decoding. Unless you wanna go with a boutique processor which will run you much pricier than a regular AVR, an all-integrated AVR is still a more economical decision. Same way nowadays it's cheaper or about the same to buy a 5.1 receiver than a 2.0 one even if you're only running stereo.

Pre Amp/Receiver for Stereo

Would you be willing to recommend a decent (nothing fancy) pre amp/receiver with remote control to be used with active monitors?

Remote control mandatory. If its depth is not too much that would be helpful as well for wife acceptance reasons...

And if the volume is shown on a display, I consider it cool.

Thanks in advance for helping me out here.

Stephan

Unfortunately it appears you'll have to look around hard to find a cheap one, cause nowadays low/mid-end receivers have taken out the multichannel pre-outs for the most part. Unless you want stereo only?

Pre Amp/Receiver for Stereo

I think any low-midrange receiver from your favorite consumer brand (i.e. Sony, Pioneer, Onkyo, etc.) will do just fine, just make sure it has stereo pre outputs at the very least.

He may not even need that, if he's willing to plug an adapter into the front panel headphone jack, in lieu of a true pre-out. Maybe not ideal, but it works in a pinch and opens up the possible candidates greatly. [Since I think pre-outs on introductory units are not that common these days and will limit his selection greatly. The situation is similar to how , as was mentioned, he should consider surround sound designs even if he only needs stereo, since they don't really cost more , oddly, yet can be used as stereo only units, without a problem.]

Pre Amp/Receiver for Stereo

^To the best of my knowledge Pioneer doesn't make any stereo receivers any more, but assuming you mean the introductory VSX521 surround receiver, it has pre-outs for the subwoofer, surround back, and front height only, but not the main stereo signal, which he needs obviously [unless you use the headphone jack trick I mentioned.] The current, introductory Sony, Onkyo, and Yamaha stereo receivers similarly lack stereo pre outs. Moving up to the $300 - $500 price range finds stereo preouts on Denon, Marantz, and NAD.---

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And if the volume is shown on a display, I consider it cool.

I take it you mean the unit's front panel, illuminated display, not a TV screen, right?[Usually shown on a TV/video monitor's screen it is called "OSD" for "on screen display".]

Pre Amp/Receiver for Stereo

^To the best of my knowledge Pioneer doesn't make any stereo receivers any more, but assuming you mean the introductory VSX521 surround receiver, it has pre-outs for the subwoofer, surround back, and front height only

Look to the very left of the Surr Back/Front height output, there are two stereo outs. Similarly the cheapest current Sonys have it, including a stereo receiver that's selling for about $100 from googling.

I'm not sure if these outputs would be "monitor" type though which are just passthroughs.

Pre Amp/Receiver for Stereo

Those are both "tape outs" ("DVR/BDR" and "CD-R/TAPE"), i.e. fixed line-level outputs of the currently-selected source.

There actually *was* a unit that could do exactly what the OP wants - the Audio Alchemy DLC.

I've had one for about 15 years now, and it's a unique little box: less than half-rack in size, four line-level inputs, two sets of outputs, and not a single button on the unit - entirely run from the remote, which you do *not* misplace as it has an all-metal body with a milled aluminum faceplate and buttons about the size of nickels.

The entire front panel consists of four LEDs to indicate the currently-selected source, one for power, one for mute, and then two roughly 0.75-inch tall red 2-digit LED readouts of the volume level in either percent (0-99) or dB (both gain and attenuation) - they're easily readable from 20+ feet away. The whole thing is pretty much the definition of minimalism.

@ OP: If you can find one used - big "if" - it would do exactly what you need, and be about as inconspicuous as possible...except for the volume display.